Killer Whale Breaching

Gray Whale in Grice Bay

Photograph by Flip Nicklin

Every year, in late fall, gray whales leave their feeding grounds in Alaska to breed in the warm waters off Mexico's west coast. They return north in the summer, a round trip of some 12,500 miles (20,116 kilometers)!

Humpback Whales in Singing Position

Northern Right Whale on the Surface

Photograph courtesy NOAA

The white bumps on a right whale's head are skin abrasions called callosities. Extensive hunting has dramatically reduced this whale's numbers, and estimates are that only about 300 remain in the North Atlantic.